we want to move you onto another issue as well and that is syria. because we are learning that, you know, there are -- there are 11,000 people leaving as refugees to turkey and jordan, that was the headline that crossed this morning. now there is some discussion in the international community about whether or not bashar al-assad is better than what you might get, you know, if he is deposed, if he is pushed out of the country, you know, there have been so many human atrocities under his watch, that's a difficult, you know, that's ao difficult thin a difficult thing to even put out there. what are your thoughts? >> well, you know, there are wars and conflicts where no participant is somebody whose victory would be beneficial to the united states, and this could well be done of them. look, this has been going on for 18 months, and for 18 months i think we've been waiting for the administration, for our intelligence services, for somebody to identify leaders of the opposition that we could trust with american assistance, maybe up to and including -- i'm